A lecture at the Palace Museum has proved one of Beijing's hottest attractions: 350 tickets for the talk by the museum's director Shan Jixiang on Sunday were snapped up within six minutes, so a further 150 were issued - and the event was watched by over half a million people online. 

The lecture, titled “The Expressions of the Palace Museum,” was the 100th of the series, which started in 2012. Shan briefed the audience about the efforts adopted in recent years to provide more accessible services, as well as the future goals of the museum.

In recent years, the Palace Museum has impressed many Chinese, especially the younger generations, by embracing new media to promote a set of productions including applications, creative souvenirs and commodities, and even documentaries and films.

According to official data, by the end of 2015, the museum had over 8,700 kinds of creative products, with the turnover reaching one billion yuan (150 million US dollars).

Director Shan said by dismissing the vendors and low-end outsourced exhibitions, the museum aimed to offer a sober environment to visitors, so as to fully highlight the attributes of the museum.

The director also talked about an exhibition named after a collection of documents and archives - “The Precious Collection of the Stone Moat” - which attracted over 15 million visitors during two months in 2015. “We probably are the first museum in the world to send the visitors instant noodles,” Shan joked, as many visitors had to line up for hours to enter the exhibition hall.

Speaking of future plans, Shan disclosed that the museum will soon evacuate half of its office staff, numbering about 750 people, from the palace. The decision was made as the museum is planning to expand its public area to 85 percent of the total space. Three more exhibition halls will be open to the public, including one for foreign historical relics, one for archaeological site and the other for furniture of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1636-1912) Dynasties.

Shan’s lecture attracted an online audience of 530,000, and the lecture hall was crowded with nearly 500 people, with many standing or sitting on the floor for two hours after the staff issued 150 more standing tickets.

Over 3,000 people commented on the lecture online, saying that instead of being a boring, clichéd talk on relics, it turned out to be entertaining as well as instructive. With an audience ranging from teenagers to elderly people, the ancient museum is moving closer to its goal – becoming one of the top-tier museums in the world.